ATI x1800XL or eVGA 7800GT CO?

[Addle]

As the title says, im looking at getting a video card for my new gaming machine and im not sure whether to get the x1800XL or the 7800GT CO. Which would you guys rather have? Pro's I can think of for each is that the x1800XL has a more rich feature set, but the 7800GT has the SLI upgradability. I know I can get a CF motherboard, but unfortunatly I am limited to shopping at Fry's for my motherboard so I can get either the DFI Ultra-D or SLI-D (not DR).

Which will have better in game performance? Which would you guys rather have?

 

[Matthias99]

Performance is close, generally flipping back and forth depending on the game and settings. Looking at benches of games you play would be a good idea.

At the same price, I'd lean towards the X1800XL for its better AF quality and generally better performance with AA/AF. They also seem to overclock pretty well.

But if you play a lot of demanding OpenGL games, the 7800GT might be a better choice. SLI thus far has not proven to be a very good upgrade path, so I wouldn't worry *too* much about that.

Edit: I'm not sure which eVGA card the "CO" model is. If it's one of the 470/1100 7800GTs, that would outperform a stock X1800XL, since a stock 7800GT is only 400/1000. Of course, you could try to OC the X1800XL as well.

 

[Cooler]

ATI x1800XL because you can oc the core to 590 or higher with ease and make it almost if not exactly like a x1800XT

 

[Bartokomus]

I would have to answer the edge belongs to the GT, if not simply for pricing. Performance seems pretty even when spread over the whole spectrum of benches, so the price differential shoudl be taken into consideration.

good luck

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Bartokomus
I would have to answer the edge belongs to the GT, if not simply for pricing. Performance seems pretty even when spread over the whole spectrum of benches, so the price differential shoudl be taken into consideration.

good luck

Did you read the post? He can get either card for the same price.

 

[Munky]

See, this used to be easy back in the day when you could just decide between 2 cards based on whether you play Doom3 or HL2, or whichever game a particular card is best at. Now, it seems like hell froze over and Ati is better at Doom3, while Nv has a slight edge in HL2. Overall, the gt is faster without AA/AF, but they're on par when eye candy is enabled, and for the same price just pick your favorite color: red or green. Each also has it's own issues - immature drivers for the xl, and not so good opengl performance, but the gt has image quality issues in some games.

 

[Matt2]

GT

 

[Corporate Thug]

i THINK the x1800 would a little faster when both are OC to max potential and AA/AF

 

[Pete]

Tough call. I'd wait for the 512MB GTX reviews to be released on the 14th, as we might see both the GT and the XL included in those reviews with the latest drivers (5.11 for ATI, 81.87+ for NV). Latest review I've read with both cards tested is this one. This one is pretty recent and includes a whole lot more games.

OCing aside, the GT might generally edge out the XL in game framerates, but I literally mean edge out. Aside from the few games where one card outclasses the other, they're generally quite close. The XL seems to have a nicer, or at least a bigger, feature set (AVIVO, dual-link TDMS, HQ AF), but GT is still generally faster in OpenGL games (tho ATI has caught up in D3 and Q4, NV still rules Riddick and Pac Fighters). The GT will probably be easier/cheaper to SLI than the XL, but I'm still not a fan of SLI as a long-term upgrade option. By the time you get around to adding another card, there may well be a new high-end model that'll be pretty close to SLI performance but which'll likely run cooler and quieter and offer newer features. You can see how SLI'ed GTs compare to a single GTX or XT here. Actually, SLI'ed GTs look pretty great in quite a few games. I'm guessing they'll look a lot less attractive once the 512MB GTX comes out, but I also guess you're neither willing to buy a $600 card right now nor wait until you can afford it.

So, yeah, close call, but the GT gets the edge in overall speed (especially if that eVGA is clocked higher than regular GTs), and the XL gets the edge in overall features. Use the benchmarks to make up your mind by seeing which card performs better in the games you play.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: Pete
Tough call. I'd wait for the 512MB GTX reviews to be released on the 14th, as we might see both the GT and the XL included in those reviews with the latest drivers (5.11 for ATI, 81.87+ for NV). Latest review I've read with both cards tested is this one. This one is pretty recent and includes a whole lot more games.

OCing aside, the GT might generally edge out the XL in game framerates, but I literally mean edge out. Aside from the few games where one card outclasses the other, they're generally quite close. The XL seems to have a nicer, or at least a bigger, feature set (AVIVO, dual-link TDMS, HQ AF), but GT is still generally faster in OpenGL games (tho ATI has caught up in D3 and Q4, NV still rules Riddick and Pac Fighters). The GT will probably be easier/cheaper to SLI than the XL, but I'm still not a fan of SLI as a long-term upgrade option. By the time you get around to adding another card, there may well be a new high-end model that'll be pretty close to SLI performance but which'll likely run cooler and quieter and offer newer features. You can see how SLI'ed GTs compare to a single GTX or XT here. Actually, SLI'ed GTs look pretty great in quite a few games. I'm guessing they'll look a lot less attractive once the 512MB GTX comes out, but I also guess you're neither willing to buy a $600 card right now nor wait until you can afford it.

So, yeah, close call, but the GT gets the edge in overall speed (especially if that eVGA is clocked higher than regular GTs), and the XL gets the edge in overall features. Use the benchmarks to make up your mind by seeing which card performs better in the games you play.

some people just like to read my mind and put it into a HELL of a lot better phrasing.

well said!

 

[Hacp]

Depends on your monitor. If you have a low resolution moniotr, the the XL because of more features. If you have a higher resolution moniotr, then the GT CO because its performance is def better than the XL in terms of FPS.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Pete
Tough call. I'd wait for the 512MB GTX reviews to be released on the 14th, as we might see both the GT and the XL included in those reviews with the latest drivers (5.11 for ATI, 81.87+ for NV). Latest review I've read with both cards tested is this one. This one is pretty recent and includes a whole lot more games.

OCing aside, the GT might generally edge out the XL in game framerates, but I literally mean edge out. Aside from the few games where one card outclasses the other, they're generally quite close. The XL seems to have a nicer, or at least a bigger, feature set (AVIVO, dual-link TDMS, HQ AF), but GT is still generally faster in OpenGL games (tho ATI has caught up in D3 and Q4, NV still rules Riddick and Pac Fighters). The GT will probably be easier/cheaper to SLI than the XL, but I'm still not a fan of SLI as a long-term upgrade option. By the time you get around to adding another card, there may well be a new high-end model that'll be pretty close to SLI performance but which'll likely run cooler and quieter and offer newer features. You can see how SLI'ed GTs compare to a single GTX or XT here. Actually, SLI'ed GTs look pretty great in quite a few games. I'm guessing they'll look a lot less attractive once the 512MB GTX comes out, but I also guess you're neither willing to buy a $600 card right now nor wait until you can afford it.

So, yeah, close call, but the GT gets the edge in overall speed (especially if that eVGA is clocked higher than regular GTs), and the XL gets the edge in overall features. Use the benchmarks to make up your mind by seeing which card performs better in the games you play.

Looking at the techreport article, those 5.11 drivers really improved the performance of the x1800xt. It wins in almost every test at 16x12 + AA+AF. Interesting read...

 

[nts]

XL,

1. XL provides higher IQ than the GT, much better AF (angle independant) and better AA (6x for the cost of 4x). Both have a much lower hit on framerate when used compared to the GT (15-20% to 30-35%).

2. XL can OC the core to XT speeds (and beyond), memory is slower than the XT model though but can still get a nice OC.

3. Performance, the XL performance is only going to go up. The GTs architecture is basically NV40 (with more pipes) so the drivers are very mature. The 520 is a totally new architecture and speed will definetaly improve with future driver releases (like OpenGL fix in 5.11 giving ~30% improvement).

4. Features. SM3 with flow control will run a lot faster on the XL then the GT thanks to the architecutre. More future proof here.

HTH

 

[Steelski]

Off topic but this is a great thread that is going nicely. If anyone wants to join in the debate for stop flaming ATI then please do as it could be an interestind read for the moderator.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1732275&enterthread=y

Total linkage

 

[Steelski]

on topic i would go ATI because i would overclock. if not then i would still go with ATi because as it has already been pointed out it will only get better with time. (driverswise)

I am personally waiting on a cut down (locked pipeline) version of the XT like the GTO2 before it anf the AGP X800 Vivo before that and the awesome for the time 128MB 9500 non pro.

On the Nvidia front i would not go with the GT, ..............GTX maybee.

Heck, get both.........................
test then then sell one on the web.

 

[tuteja1986]

I have both 7800GTX + X1800XL when playing at same res : 1280x1024 AA4x FF4x I don't see the different with my eye but its another story when benchmarking where the 7800GTX clearly wins out. 7800GTX does have shimmering problem in my : WOW + FEAR but its really unnoticeable... but X1800XL suppose to have better image quality but i have never actually tested the image quality as i really can't see the difference when playing. the only reason i got the x1800xl is because the place i worked was willing to sell the demo model to me at a extermly lwo price.

Which ever you buy will do you fine but if you buy the 7800GT just use the older drivers :!

 

[jiffylube1024]

If you can get either for $320, I'd get the X1800XL simply because with the new improvements on the 512-bit memory controller, it is a bit faster, combined with the higher quality AF and some good AA as well (adaptive AA). Plus, the X1800XL is overclocking quite nicely on stock cooling; once better aftermarket cooling comes out for it, it should o/c even further.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Flip a coin.

Honestly both cards are so close in performance you cant go wrong with either one.
Here is the quick summary of both cards.

Perfomance: EVGA 7800GT CO > X1800XL since its already OCed at 470/1100

Cooling EVGA CO due to its copper heatsink plus the GTs low temps at load (60c~)

IQ: NV AA > ATi AA (TSAA > AAA) NV AF < ATi AF (angle independent AF
Also NV cards look better on LCDs, while ATi cards loook better on CRTs. (Not sure if this is true or not but just food for thought)
However overall IQ is same. (Unless your a IQ junkie)

Feature: EVGA CO =/< X1800XL
Pure Video/Avivo, SLi/Crossfire, S.M 3.0 (HDR, etc), h.264 for both cards pretty soonish through driver updates. HDR+AA although not sure if this has been offically announced and working.

I suggest you wait for the 512mb GTX review, its going to have X1800 series cards using 5.11 vs new NV 8x series driver for the 7 series.

 

[crazydingo]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
IQ: NV AA > ATi AA (TSAA > AAA)

I thought so too, but looks like thats changed.

From Bit-tech

At the moment, we're not quite sure what method of Anti-Aliasing is being used on the transparent textures in ATI's new 'Performance' Adaptive AA mode, but it looks a lot better than NVIDIA's Transparency MSAA in our opinion. It should provide a much larger range of image quality improvements that are useable

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: crazydingo

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
IQ: NV AA > ATi AA (TSAA > AAA)

I thought so too, but looks like thats changed.

From Bit-tech

At the moment, we're not quite sure what method of Anti-Aliasing is being used on the transparent textures in ATI's new 'Performance' Adaptive AA mode, but it looks a lot better than NVIDIA's Transparency MSAA in our opinion. It should provide a much larger range of image quality improvements that are useable

nVidia also has a SSAA transparency mode, and it is higher quality than the MSAA option.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor

nVidia also has a SSAA transparency mode, and it is higher quality than the MSAA option.

The performance hit that it causes though is probably not worth it.

I'd get the GT. You should be able to hit at least 500 core on that GT and possible 1200 on the mem, which would make it better than the GTX. Also, as mentioned, it is a cooler card. This is coming from a big ATI fan so I'm not speaking from bias . . .

Though I must admit, ATI obviously likely has a lot of potential in increasing the performance of the X1000 line via more matured drivers as obviously they themselves are still discovering the potential of the X1000 cards . . .

 

[Gstanfor]

The performance hit is quite small.

Only the transparent textures receive the SSAA, everything else remains MSAA anti-aliased.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
The performance hit is quite small.

Only the transparent textures receive the SSAA, everything else remains MSAA anti-aliased.

Really? I thought Transparent SSAA was a much bigger performance hit than Transparent MSAA . . .

 

[Gstanfor]

It all depends on how much transparency is in a particular frame as to how great the penalty will be.

Super sampling is more expensive performance wise than MSAA, but nVidia has worked at cutting a lot of the penalty away in recent drivers, and with more modern games it isn't that much of an issue since they tend not to be fill-rate limited.

 

[Elfear]

I take a pretty big hit switching to SSAA from MSAA on my 7800GTX.